Up In The Air is the darling of film critics these days in the run up to the Academy Awards, with many of them calling it variations of “a funny, witty comedy”. A film that’s “right on time, as the recession is on”. I honestly do not understand how a film about a guy who fires people for a living called be ‘comedy’ by any yardstick.

The problem with Up In The Air is that it simply doesn’t bring up anything new at all, nor does it bring up anything we know of in an interesting way. It doesn’t particularly surprise you or move you in any way whatsoever. The plot is extremely predictable and not once does it ever spring a surprise upon you.

Anna Kendrick’s fake acting is terrible enough to earn her a position on the list of ‘Closest Thing Humanity Has To Android Actors’, right up there with Hayden Christensen and Daniel Radcliffe. The only saving grace is George Clooney, who tries his best to save this film from crash-landing. It’s only in the last fifteen minutes or so of the movie that it has some substance in it; when Clooney’s character is coming to terms with the fact that rethinking his way of living doesn’t work out for him.

Up In The Air is nothing more than a chick flick masquerading as a highbrow “witty commentary of the times we live in”. Awkward interactions between humans does not necessarily equate to a good film.